Maritime gas prices increase for the third time this week

All three Maritime provinces say increases at the gas pump.

Gas prices in the Maritimes increased overnight following previous increases on Wednesday and Thursday.

Nova Scotia

In the Halifax-area, the price of regular self-serve gasoline increased by five cents. The minimum price is now 152.7 cents per litre.

Diesel prices increased by 10.3 cents, bringing the minimum price to 201.5 cents per litre.

In Cape Breton, the new price of regular self-serve gasoline is 154.6 cents per litre and the price of diesel is 203.5 cents per litre.

On Friday, the Nova Scotia Energy Board said it would be using its interrupter mechanism to adjust the price of diesel oil again at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday due to “significant shifts in the market price.”

The price of gasoline will not be affected by this interruption.

Prince Edward Island

The Prince Edward Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission approved increases effective at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The price of regular gasoline increased by 6.9 cents to a minimum price of 161.1 cents per litre.

Diesel prices also increased by 6.9 cents. The minimum price is 210.8 cents per litre.

On Friday, the P.E.I. Regulatory and Appeals Commission said it will interrupt prices on regular and premium gasoline, as well as furnace oil and diesel, as 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.

“Recent global events have resulted in increased market volatility, which has required unscheduled pricing adjustments,” the Commission said in a news release. “In addition to temporarily moving to twice-weekly pricing adjustments, the Commission will be adopting the practice of providing advance notice that there will be a price interruption.

“The Commission is adopting this practice on a permanent basis to provide as much pricing stability and certainty to retailers and consumers as possible, especially when markets are experiencing increased volatility.”

New Brunswick

The price of regular self-serve gasoline in New Brunswick increased by eight cents overnight. The maximum price is now 150.0 cents per litre.

The price of diesel decreased 15.7 cents following a large increase on Thursday. The new maximum price is 200.5 cents per litre.

“Prices continue to skyrocket”

Petroleum analyst Patrick Dehaan says the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is having a bigger impact every day.

“Oil prices continue to skyrocket the longer this issue goes on unaddressed. Every day it goes unaddressed there’s about 20 or 25 million barrels of oil that aren’t making it to the marketplace,” he says.

“We haven’t seen this type of increase since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with post-COVID recovery.”

Chris McKee, with the Atlantic Canada Trucking Association, says the rise in the price of fuel will impact the cost of moving things such as food and building material to market.

“A typical tractor trailer can hold up to about 1,200 L of fuel. When we do see these large spikes and prices, you know even 10 cents a litre, that’s a significant increase on a fill up,” says Chris McKee with the Atlantic Canada Trucking Association.

Close to 30 to 35 percent of all the expenses associated with flying an airplane is fuel, according to aviation analyst John Gradek.

“That’s where the airlines take some action, depending on the amount of the increase, and then will try to pass it off to the consumer to maintain the marginal level of profitability they have today. So, you can expect some increases in your airfares as a result of these price increases,” he says.

“Particularly (on) international flights, there might be a fuel surcharge starting to show up on certain flights starting next week.”

With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis